Immigration and males' earnings inequality in the regions of the United States

In this paper I investigate the impact of recent immigration on males' earnings distributions in the major regions of the United States. I use six counterfactual scenarios to describe alternative regional skill distributions and wage structures for the population of natives and long-term immigrants in the absence of recent immigration. I find that immigration over the last three decades can account for a substantial portion of the variation in inequality across the regions. Recent immigration has contributed moderately to national growth in males' earnings inequality, primarily by changing the composition of the population.     

Protecting Black mothers: How the history of midwifery can inform doula activism

In response to the crisis of racist disparities in maternal mortality, many activists are pushing for increased access to birth doulas for Black women. As states and municipalities respond by incorporating doulas into hospital settings with increasingly common requirements for doula certification, it is more important than ever to investigate the role of doulas, and how that role might change under the medical model of birth within US hospitals. Will activism for doulas turn into arguments for the “right” to a doula? Without the full privileges of citizenship—will the most marginalized women be left out of that right despite their health and safety being at the origins of the activist struggle? To investigate these questions, we can look to the history of midwives in the United States, and examine how the midwifery model of childbirth changed as activists fought for increased access to midwives to improve birth outcomes.     

Physical and mental health changes in aging foster parents: Do child behavioural problems hasten declines?

This study examined foster parent physical and mental health over time. It was hypothesized that increased severity and frequency of child behavioural problems, whether externalizing or internalizing, would be associated with poorer health over time, especially for foster parents ≥60 years of age. Data from the baseline and Wave 2 interview of the 2010 National Survey of Child and Adolescent Well‐Being were used. The final analytic sample included kin and nonkin foster parents who had custody of a foster child for both waves of data collection (n = 962). Ordinary Least Squares regression models with lagged dependent variables showed that foster parents ≥60 had deteriorating physical health over time, but caregiver age alone had no association with worsening mental health. However, parents ≥60 caring for children with externalizing behavioural problems had significantly improved physical health. Mental health of parents ≥60 significantly diminished if child externalizing or internalizing problems worsened. Findings indicate that for aging foster parents, externalizing child behaviours may stimulate physical activity and improved physical health, yet any type of child behavioural problem can deteriorate mental health functioning.     

Parental Status and Biological Functioning: Findings from the Nashville Stress and Health Study

Population Research and Policy Review - Does childrearing affect the biological functioning of parents? To address this question, we analyze cross-sectional survey and biomarker data from...     

Conventional Wisdom on Risk Communication and Evidence from a Field Experiment

A recent comprehensive review of the literature identified a number of facts and principles governing risk communication. This paper evaluates several of these propositions using recent evidence from a field experiment in communicating the risks from radon in homes. At this point in the research, data relates primarily to the response of risk perceptions to different information treatments and different personal characteristics. The effect of various causal factors is sensitive to the particular test of risk perception applied. No information treatment was clearly superior for all tasks. An important implication of these findings is that risk communicators must determine what specific task or tasks the information program should enable people to do.     

We Live Here Too: Birth Children's Perspectives on Fostering Someone with Learning Disabilities

SUMMARY. This paper reports some results from a study of foster care of young people with severe learning disabilities. It focuses upon the views and experiences of the birth children in foster families. The findings demonstrate how fostering involves everyone in the family, not just the adult carers; and highlight some of the rewards and difficulties of fostering from the birth children's point of view.